Climate Change: Selected Indicators

According to the IPCC special report Global Warming of 1.5°C:

• Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8°C to 1.2°C.
• Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. (high confidence)
• Warming from anthropogenic emissions from the pre-industrial period to the present will persist for centuries to millennia and will continue to cause further long-term changes in the climate system, such as sea level rise, with associated impacts (high confidence), but these emissions alone are unlikely to cause global warming of 1.5°C (medium confidence).
• Climate-related risks for natural and human systems are higher for global warming of 1.5°C than at present, but lower than at 2°C (high confidence).
• These risks depend on the magnitude and rate of warming, geographic location, levels of development and vulnerability, and on the choices and implementation of adaptation and mitigation options (high confidence).

Global Fossil Fuel Consumption and GHG Accumulation

Fossil fuel combustion and other human activities are increasing the atmospheric CO2 levels to unprecedented rates. The graph in this video is an animated version of the standard Keeling curve from 1980 to September 2014.(Source: NASA: Atmospheric CO₂ Trends, Last accessed 1/8/2019)

Additional Sources:

European Environment Agency (EEA): GHG Data Viewer provides data sent by countries to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and EU Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism.

The World Bank: CO2 Emissions provides data by country.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions (U.S.): Trends and Concentrations

EPA develops an annual report called the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. This report tracks total annual U.S. emissions and removals by source, economic sector, and greenhouse gas going back to 1990. Released in 2018, the key findings from the 1990-2016 U.S. Inventory are summarized here.

Additional Sources:

• EPA: AirData provides access to air quality data collected at outdoor monitors across the United States.
• EPA: Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data Explorer provides access to data from EPA's annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.
• Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network: Carbon Tracker is a CO2 measurement and modeling system developed by NOAA to keep track of sources (emissions to the atmosphere) and sinks (removal from the atmosphere) of carbon dioxide around the world.
• United Nations: Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data provides access to the most recent data on national GHG emissions and removals.
• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): National Greenhouse Gas Inventory is consistent with the annual emissions reporting done by EPA, but provides an enhanced view of the data regionally and by land use.

Land Ice

This video shows the mass change over the Antarctic Ice Sheet from January 2004 through June 2014. The color on the surface of the ice sheet shows the change in equivalent water height, while the graph overlay shows the total accumulated change in gigatons. (Source: NASA: GSFC MASCON Solution over Antarctica from January 2004 to June 2014, Last accessed 1/8/2019).

Additional Sources:

• NASA: Ice Bridge studies annual changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets.
• NASA: Rising Seas: NASA on the Greenland Ice Sheet is a video clip that gives a deep dive into sea level rise research as NASA scientists and their colleagues discuss their research on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Snow and Sea Ice

In this visualization, data from NASA's AMSR-E instrument captures the connected patterns of snow and sea ice cover in North America. (Source: NASA: Snow Leads, Sea Ice Follows. Last accessed 1/8/2019.)

Additional Sources:

• The SEARCH: Sea Ice Outlook is an international effort to provide a community-wide summary of the expected September Arctic sea ice minimum. Monthly reports released throughout the summer synthesize community estimates of the current state and expected minimum of sea ice—at both a pan-Arctic and regional scale.
• Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) is a collaborative network of scientists and stakeholders to advance research on sea ice prediction and communicate sea ice knowledge and tools.

Sea Level

The IPCC Global Warming of 1.5°C special report highlights a number of climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C, or more. For instance, by 2100, global sea level rise would be 10 cm lower with global warming of 1.5°C compared with 2°C. The likelihood of an Arctic Ocean free of sea ice in summer would be once per century with global warming of 1.5°C, compared with at least once per decade with 2°C. Coral reefs would decline by 70-90 percent with global warming of 1.5°C, whereas virtually all (> 99 percent) would be lost with 2°C.” (Source: IPCC Global Warming of 1.5°C Summary for Policymakers, Last accessed 1/8/2019)

Additional Sources:

• The Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) is known as GLOSS, and it provides data for deriving the Global Level of the Sea Surface.
• NASA: Sea Level Science presents a media teleconference to discuss recent insights on sea level rise and the continuing challenge of predicting how fast and how much sea level will rise.

Increase in Average Surface Temperature

This is a visualized graph of annual global temperatures with respect to a baseline from the 19th century, in Fahrenheit. “Earth's 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, continuing a longterm warming trend. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Last year was the first time the global average temperatures were more than 1 degree Celsius above the 1880-1899 average, a change largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.” (Source: NASA Goddard Media Studios: Annual Global Temperature Change, Last accessed 1/8/2019.)

Additional Sources:

• Berkeley Earth: Land and Ocean Data presented here have been divided into three categories: Output Data, Source Data, and Intermediate Data.
• NASA: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP).